Totally Over You
Totally Over You by the cult author of the British in-yer-face theatre Mark Ravenhill was first performed in 2003 at the National Theatre in London as a part of the NT Connections programme of plays for young people. Inspired by Molière’s Les Précieuses ridicules, which tells the story of four girls who decide to become famous by dating famous men and thus ditch their boyfriends. The four boys, on the other hand, with the help of their friends from the drama club prepare a real surprise, a scenario to ridicule the girls and make them reflect on the consequences of their acts. This “comedy for teenagers” satirically plays with the notion of fame prevalent with teenagers of the East and the West. In the UK Ravenhill's play was performed by teenagers, while at the Mladinsko Vito Taufer masterly directed adult actors who, helped by a playful translation by Jakob J. Kenda and a music hit by Saša Lošić portray a wide range of acting registers.
After seeing the performance I can write with certainty that this performance is one of the better ways to entice the youth into the theatre, the very same youth that thinks along the lines of Ravenhill's heroes: 'This is the 21st century. Drama club is for losers.' […] Vito Taufer […] has skilfully created a performance that is attractive in all its dimensions of a spectacle. The direction delivers it gradually, thoughtfully (dramaturg Tomaž Toporišič), slowly increases its rhythm and tempo until the climax: a fake concert, which is a real 'hit', its 'drive' grabs the (not necessarily teenage) spectator and literally puts him or her in the middle of the story (music was written by Saša Lošić). The four actresses positioned among the audience really help create the mood. Then the rhythm slows down until the dramatic ending. […] All the characters are precisely created, each of the actors has found particular traits to properly characterize them through the process of transformation, even found a cute detail, an entertaining gesture, poise or a voice register […]. Totally Over You is definitely a very entertaining performance and therefore has all the chances to became a hit, not only for tweens and teens.
Totally over you is first and foremost a magnificent party caused by staging a sliver of the teenage world that Vito Taufer knows how to show with all its contrasts and caricatures, using an undemanding text as a base. He is, of course, aided by exceptional actors (Janja Majzelj, Matija Vastl, Romana Šalehar, Neda R. Bric and Mojca Partljič, Uroš Maček, Robert Prebil, Boris Kos), the main creators of the theatre illusion in which everything is possible. And suddenly there is a performance, one can already say, a hit performance, because undoubtedly the young audience especially will watch it on and on, not least because of Saša Lošić's pop music, greatly surpassing most of what we can hear from today’s famous pop stars.